Everything about Malnutrition totally explained
Malnutrition is a general term for a medical condition caused by an improper or insufficient
diet. It most often refers to
undernutrition resulting from inadequate consumption, poor absorption, or excessive loss of nutrients, but the term can also encompass
overnutrition, resulting from overeating or excessive intake of specific nutrients. An individual will experience malnutrition if the appropriate amount of, or quality of
nutrients comprising a
healthy diet are not consumed for an extended period of time. An extended period of malnutrition can result in
starvation, disease, and infection.
Malnutrition is the lack of sufficient nutrients to maintain healthy bodily functions and is typically associated with
extreme poverty in economically
developing countries. It is a common cause of
reduced intelligence in parts of the world affected by
famine. Malnutrition as the result of inappropriate
dieting,
overeating or the absence of a "balanced diet" is often observed in economically
developed countries (eg. as indicated by increasing levels of
obesity).
Most commonly, malnourished people either don't have enough
calories in their
diet, or are eating a diet that lacks
protein,
vitamins, or trace
minerals. Medical problems arising from malnutrition are commonly referred to as
deficiency diseases.
Scurvy is a well-known and now rare form of malnutrition, in which the victim is deficient in
vitamin C.
Common forms of malnutrition include
protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) and
micronutrient malnutrition. PEM refers to inadequate availability or
absorption of
energy and
proteins in the body.
Micronutrient malnutrition refers to inadequate availability of some essential nutrients such as
vitamins and
trace elements that are required by the body in small quantities. Micronutrient deficiencies lead to a variety of diseases and impair normal functioning of the body. Deficiency in micronutrients such as Vitamin A reduces the capacity of the body to resist diseases. Deficiency in
iron,
iodine and
vitamin A is widely prevalent and represent a major
public health challenge. An array of afflictions ranging from stunted growth, reduced intelligence and various cognitive abilities, reduced sociability, reduced leadership and assertiveness, reduced activity and energy, reduced muscle growth and strength, and poorer health overall are directly implicated to nutrient deficiencies. Also, another, although rare, effect of malnutrition is black spots appearing on the skin.
Hunger is the normal psychological response brought on by the physiological condition of needing food. Hunger can also affect the mental state of a person, and is often used as a
metonym for general undernourishment.
Politics
As of 2008, malnutrition continues to be a worldwide problem, particularly in
lesser developed countries. According to the
Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, "850 million people worldwide were undernourished in 1999 to 2005, the most recent years for which figures are available" and the number of malnourished people has recently been increasing. An orange
awareness ribbon is used to raise awareness of malnutrition in the world. The FAO calculates undernourishment by comparing the amount of food available in a country at national level with how many people live in the country.
The fundamental issue causing malnutrition is that the
human population exceeds the Earth's
carrying capacity; however,
Food First raises the issue of
food sovereignty and claims that every country (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the "
free trade" economic order associated with such institutions as the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank prevent this from happening. At the other end of the spectrum, the World Bank itself claims to be part of the solution to malnutrition, asserting that the best way for countries to succeed in breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition is to build export-led economies that will give them the financial means to buy foodstuffs on the world market.
Amartya Sen won a
1998 Nobel Prize in part for his work suggesting that
famine isn't typically the product of a lack of food; rather, famine may arise from problems in food distribution networks or from governmental policies in the developing world.
The politics of food trade and food security are often difficult to grasp. Many people are keen to believe that sending food aid to the poor of the world is a worthy idea, but that each country should produce its own food.
Countries that have become more open to international trade in recent years (for example China, Vietnam or Peru) have greatly reduced the prevalence of undernourishment as measured by the
FAO (food energy consumption below acceptable minimum) or as measured by the
World Health Organization by the percentage of children under five who are stunted, wasted or underweight. Countries that remained closed to external trade (for example
North Korea) have not improved or have worsened their food situation. Some anti-globalization groups insist on "food sovereignty", for example the idea that each country should be physically self sufficient in every food item consumed by their people; by that account the US, the UK, Sweden or Belgium, and in fact almost all countries in the world would be food insecure, and a desert nation like Saudi Arabia should be in need of international help and (with its current population) wouldn't be viable as a country at all.
One policy adopted in recent decades to alleviate world malnutrition is
food aid, for example the physical donation of food from rich to poor countries. From the rich donor countries' point of view, this is a suitable way to reduce excess supply created by domestic
agricultural subsidies, stabilizing farm prices in rich countries, even if the cost of supplying the food to its final beneficiaries is often disproportionately high. Food aid may be realistic for short-term emergencies (
natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, droughts and floods, or human-made like
war and refugee flows) or in the form of a long-term program for an extended period. From the viewpoint of recipient countries, the value of food-aid depends on the form it takes. Emergency food aid is welcome, though aid in cash may also be welcome because the food may often be purchased locally in zones not affected by the emergency, thus benefitting local farmers. Long-term foreign food aid, instead, may discourage local production and distort
markets. Long-term food-aid programs should be gradually replaced by aid oriented towards economic development, ultimately enabling the poor to become independent and earn enough income to purchase their food (either locally produced or commercially imported). Part of that economic development would encourage local farmers to shift their cropping patterns in favour of cash crops for the domestic or world markets.
Recognising the inherent potential of the micro-
algae Spirulina (
Spirulina platensis) to counter malnutrition and its severe negative impacts at multiple levels of the society especially in the developing and Least Developed Countries (LDC), the international community affirmed its firm conviction by joining hands to form the Intergovernmental Institution for the use of Micro-algae Spirulina Against Malnutrition, IIMSAM.
Spirulina because of its easy accessibility, affordability and capability to assimilate in the human body is a potent tool, not only to counter and combat malnutrition but also to stem the loss of human lives especially of children and enrich human capital.
IIMSAM’s Goodwill Ambassadors from across the globe like eminent footballer
Diego Maradona, fashion designer
Carolina Herrera, musician
Chris de Burgh and the great-grandson of
Mahatma Gandhi,
Tushar Gandhi of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation among others, help spread the mandate of the organisation and aspire to build a consensus to make
Spirulina a key-driver to achieve food security and bridge the health divide throughout the world.
Statistics
Number of undernourished people (million) in
2001-
2003, according to the
FAO, the following countries had 5 million or more undernourished people
(External Link
):
| Country |
umber of Undernourished (million) |
| India |
212.0 |
| China |
150.0 |
| Bangladesh |
43.1 |
| Democratic Republic of Congo |
37.0 |
| Pakistan |
35.2 |
| Ethiopia |
31.5 |
| Tanzania |
16.1 |
| Philippines |
15.2 |
| Brazil |
14.4 |
| Indonesia |
13.8 |
| Vietnam |
13.8 |
| Thailand |
13.4 |
| Nigeria |
11.5 |
| Kenya |
9.7 |
| Sudan |
8.8 |
| Mozambique |
8.3 |
| North Korea |
7.9 |
| Yemen |
7.1 |
| Madagascar |
7.1 |
| Colombia |
5.9 |
| Zimbabwe |
5.7 |
| México |
5.1 |
| Zambia |
5.1 |
| Angola |
5.0 |
Note: This table measures "undernourishment", as defined by
FAO, and represents the number of people consuming (on average for years 2001 to 2003) less than the minimum amount of food energy (measured in kilocalories per capita per day) necessary for the average person to stay in good health while performing light physical activity. It is a conservative indicator that doesn't takes into account the extra needs of people performing extrenous physical activity, nor seasonal variations in food consumption or other sources of variability such as inter-individual differences in energy requirements.
Malnutrition and undernourishment are cumulative or average situations, and not the work of a single day's food intake (or lack thereof). This table doesn't represent the number of people who "went to bed hungry today."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 2003, only 1 out of 200 U.S. households with children became so severely food insecure that any of the children went hungry even once during the year. A substantially larger proportion of these same households (3.8 percent) had adult members who were hungry at least one day during the year because of their households' inability to afford enough food.
(External Link)
Overweight vs undernourished
In 2006, Professor Popkin from the
University of North Carolina, said there were now more overweight people across the world than undernourished people. He told the International Association of Agricultural Economists the number of
overweight people had topped one billion (of which 300 million are
obese), compared with 800 million undernourished. He added this transition from a starving world to an obese one was accelerating.
Mortality due to malnutrition
According to Jean Ziegler (the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food for 2000 to March 2008), mortality due to malnutrition accounted for 58% of the total mortality in 2006: "In the world, approximately 62 millions people, all causes of death combined, die each year. In 2006, more than 36 millions died of hunger or diseases due to deficiencies in micronutrients".
Effects
An extended period of malnutrition can result in
starvation or
deficiency diseases such as
scurvy. Malnutrition increases the risk of infection and infectious disease; for example, it's a major risk factor in the onset of active
tuberculosis.
Malnutrition appears to increase activity and movement in many animals - for example an experiment on
spiders showed increased activity and
predation in starved spiders, resulting in larger weight gain. This pattern is seen in many animals, including
humans while sleeping. It even occurs in
rats with their
cerebral cortex or stomachs completely removed. Increased activity on
hamster wheels occurred when rats were deprived not only of food, but also water or
B vitamins such as
thiamine This response may increase the animal's chance of finding food, though it has also been speculated the emigration response relieves pressure on the home population.
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